This document provides tips and guidance for effective customer interviewing. It outlines exercises for participants to practice interviewing skills in small groups where one person is the speaker, one the interviewer, and one the observer. The exercises focus on practicing open-ended questions, active listening, using silence and body language effectively, and gaining insights rather than just information. Reflection after each exercise allows participants to improve. The goal is to learn directly from customers rather than make assumptions, in order to deeply understand their needs and build products they want.

1. Effective Customer
Interviewing
Lean UX NYC 2013
Adrian Howard (@adrianh)
quietstars.com

2. Hello!

3. Eh?

4. Ask questions

5. Tip: Drink!

6. ?

8. Stand up

10. A – B - C

11. A = Speaker
B = Interviewer
C = Observer

12. Speakers:
Shut your eyes

13. Interviewers:
Chat with the
speaker about their
best restaurant
experience.

14. Observers:
Watch what
happens. Write
observations on
post-it notes.

15. 2 minutes

16. Reflection

17. B = Speaker
C = Interviewer
A = Observer

18. Speakers:
Shut your eyes

19. Interviewers:
Chat with the
speaker about their
best holiday
experience.

20. Interviewers:
One more thing.

21. Interviewers:
After the first
question – you
cannot speak
again. Shhhhh!

22. Observers:
Watch what
happens. Write
observations on
post-it notes.

23. 2 minutes

24. Reflection

25. The opposite of talking isn't listening. The
opposite of talking is waiting.
- Fran Lebowitz

26. C = Speaker
A = Interviewer
B = Observer

27. Speakers:
Shut your eyes

28. Interviewers:
Chat with the
speaker about how
they decorate &
furnish their
home.

29. Tip:
Remember to use
silence and body
language.

30. Interviewers:
One more thing.

31. Interviewers:
After the first
question you can
only ask “Can you
tell me more about
X?”

32. Interviewers:
(where X is
something the
speaker has
previously
mentioned).

33. Observers:
Watch what
happens. Write
observations on
post-it notes.

34. 4 minutes

35. Reflection

36. Tip:
Reflect back what
the speaker said.

37. Every clarification breeds new questions.
- Arthur Bloch

38. Relax...

39. ?

40. Interviews ≠ Quiz

41. Interviews ≠
Survey

42. Interviews are
AI-hard tasks

43. Rapport

44. Why do we do
interviews?

45. Steve Blank
at Ardent

46. At the top of his lungs he screamed, “You don’t
know a damn thing about what these
customers need! You’ve never talked to anyone
in this market, you don’t know who they are,
you don’t know what they need, and you have
no right to speak in any of these planning
meetings.”

47. “I want you out of the building talking to
customers; find out who they are, how they
work, and what we need to do to sell them lots
of these new computers.” Motioning to our VP
of Sales, he ordered: “Go with him and get him
in front of customers, and both of you don’t
come back until you can tell us something we
don’t know.”

48. Learn from
customers

49. Finding customers

50. Hassling people on
the street

51. Tip: Bribes

52. Coffee shops

53. Tip:
Don't look scary

54. Go where your
customers are

55. Sales

56. Marketing

57. Customer Support

58. Online

59. craigslist

60. Ethnio.net

61. Learn from
customers

62. Test our
assumptions

63. 1) Learn what?

64. 2) From who?

65. Exercise time

66. Today you found a
startup!

67. Exploring exciting
new ways to create
a great experience
eating out

68. Helping people
have the holiday of
their dreams.

69. Democratising
professional
interior decoration

70. Build Topic Maps

71. Individually write
down topics on
post-it notes

72. 2m

73. Group and label
them as a team

74. 5m

75. Interviewing

76. A = Speaker
B = Interviewer
C = Observer

77. Tip:
Remember the
person.

78. Can you tell me a
little bit about
yourself?

79. 5m

80. Reflection

81. Interviewing

82. B = Speaker
C = Interviewer
A = Observer

83. Interviewers &
Observers:
Both note down
speaker's key
points.

84. Tip:
Ask open
questions.

85. What was the last
book you read?

86. Can you tell me
about the kind of
books you read?

87. 5m

88. Reflection

89. Interviewing

90. C = Speaker
A = Interviewer
B = Observer

91. Interviewers:
No notes

92. Observers:
Observations vs
insights

93. Tip:
Ask for stories.

94. Can you tell me
about the last
time...

95. 5m

96. Reflection

97. Reflection

98. Communicating
results

99. Affinity
Diagramming

100. Further Reading

103. Coming soon

106. And if you're keen

107. Ch 7 of "Mental Models" by Indi Young
Ch 10 of "User and Task Analysis for Interaction
Design"
Ch 9 & 10 of "User and Task Analysis for
Interface Design" by JoAnn T. Hackos, Janice C.
Redish
Ch 6 of "Observing the User Experience" by
Mike Kuniavsky, Elizabeth Goodman & Andrea
Moed
Ch 4 of "Contextual Design" by Hugh Beyer and
Karen Holtzblatt

108. Bonus Exercise

109. How do we build a
better conference
experience

110. @adrianh
quietstars.com
adrianh@quietstars.com
Thank You